Editor's note: This story was originally published April 28, 2016, as Lindy Ruff's Dallas Stars were preparing to take on Ken Hitchcock's St. Louis Blues in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. With today's news of Hitchcock replacing Ruff as Stars coach, we've decided to republish this interesting tale of the two's ties

At the Olympics in Sochi, Russia, in 2014, Lindy Ruff and Ken Hitchcock shared a small dorm room.

Sleeping in twin beds about two feet apart, the veteran coaches learned to survive.

"It was like being in a bathroom," Ruff said with a wry smile. "She was tight."

The two coaching rivals were first introduced in the 1999 Stanley Cup finals when Hitchcock's Stars beat Ruff's Buffalo Sabres on a controversial Brett Hull goal that still lives in infamy in Buffalo. Now, they're back facing each other in the second round of the playoffs, as Hitchcock has moved on to coach the St. Louis Blues, and Ruff has landed with the Stars.

In between, they faced each other in the 2006 playoffs in the Eastern Conference (Ruff's Sabres defeating Hitchcock's Philadelphia Flyers) and also were assistant coaches for Canada during two gold-medal winning efforts at the Olympics.

So as the two prepared for Friday's series opener (7 p.m. on NBCSN) at American Airlines Center, they reflected more on a friendship than a rivalry.

"When you're in that type of close quarters for that long of a period, you get to know people," Hitchcock said. "We had a rough start with the Stanley Cup final there and smoothed it over. We became good friends through two Olympic Games. Being roommates for two and a half weeks, you get to know a lot about a guy."

And that's going to be one of the most intriguing aspects of this series. Hitchcock is known as a coach who stresses defense and tries to grind the game down. Ruff's history is that he adapts to his talent, and he has plenty with this edition of the Stars. Dallas leads the league in scoring at 3.23 goals per game, St. Louis is fourth in goals against at 2.40. Dallas leads the league in shooting percentage at 10.1 percent, St. Louis leads in save percentage at .919.

It's a battle of philosophies, of wills, of old friends.

'"Lindy's always been more of a risk-taker. His teams in Buffalo, they played with a high level of risk. They were really almost hybrid teams," Hitchcock said. "And then obviously you learn over time to coach through balance. I think we've both learned from each other. We had a lot of dialogue and a lot of debate under a lot of very stressful, pressure situations. I thought both of us leaned on each other pretty hard to help Team Canada through stuff."

Ruff said that the two will have a ton of information they'll be rolling over in their heads as they get ready for a battle of line matching and strategy. He said that while each has a huge book on the other, that might mean they have to go into new areas to seek advantages.

"I think there's always surprises," Ruff said. "We're going to have to make some adjustments. There's got to be some 'I didn't see that coming,' because they can watch our six games, we can watch their seven games, we can watch every goal that [Vladimir] Tarasenko scores, I can watch every play that [Alex] Pietrangelo's on the ice. But you still have to be able to surprise them."

Hitchcock said the battle will be intense and familiar but will still be about last man standing.

"We've taken a step, and we want to continue to take steps," he said. "The focus for me right now is nothing but the Blues and what can I do to help these players get to another level."

And then both can talk about it when the series is over.

Stars forward Patrick Sharp was coached by Hitchcock in Philadelphia, by Ruff in Dallas, and by both in the Olympics.

"There are many ways that they're different, but the ways they are similar is they've both had a lot of success," said Sharp. "I can tell you if they survived those dorm rooms, they survived a ton, because I was roommates with Jonathan Toews and when it was all done, we were ready to kill each other."

Ruff laughs at the stories and says they helped forge a pretty strong friendship.

"There were philosophical arguments, and I learned a lot," Ruff said. "I learned actually at the end to like him."

The top five

Here are the NHL's all-time coaching wins leaders from the regular season: